Posts Tagged ‘IFFM’

The 2nd Annual International Film Festival Manhattan (IFFM) held its Opening Night and Awards Ceremony last November 8 at the Kalayaan Hall of the Philippine Consulate in Manhattan, New York a day after a strong Nor’easter hit the city that is still recovering from the devastation brought about by Hurricane Sandy.

The festival is scheduled to run from November 9th till the 15th with all film screenings at the Quad Cinemas in Manhattan.

IFFM founders Luis Pedron and Gerry Balasta expressed their heartfelt gratitude to everyone who helped them achieve their goal of showcasing and entertaining the diverse films in all genres and scope to equal the diversity of New York.

Here’s a complete list and snapshots from the Opening/Awards Night courtesy of Rex Romero, Fernell Cruz, and blogger Felix Manuel.

International Film Festival Manhattan Awards Night

International Film Festival Manhattan 2012 Award Categories and Winners

“I took the risk, I know many will take offense but I had no other way to tell the truth that many had been so deluded to believe,” declares Mike Portes when asked about the Minsan May Isang Puta. It’s a short piece that uses a first-person narrative technique that speaks directly to its reader. The voice is even pedestrian that in its familiar tone the reader is simply drawn to it. The voice simply asks that you listen as if an old friend or relative is about to tell a story. It is a story that found thousands of listening ears since it first appeared in 2004.

The story is at once familiar yet enigmatic. In “re-telling the truth through the words of a loving mother and by using sex as an impulse zone” is perhaps what makes it fresh, intimate and endearing. Portes was already a mother of two when she worked on Minsan May Isang Puta and would have added the realistic, not imagined or distantiated, tone of a mother’s lament in the story—a layer that was underscored in the 2007 version. It is a voice and a layer that resonates among many Filipinos, and reinvigorated the interest on the piece. Portes has always been passionate about writing, yet never neglecting her social and moral obligations. Portes wants the people who chance upon her work “to bring something with them each and every time.”

One of the uncalculated effects of writing a piece that takes up a familiar and much abused figure is how it would affect creativity in another person, in another medium. The story was already in circulation and received much following when Sarah Roxas chanced upon it through the internet. The mother’s lament touched Sarah and felt the “pain and love for her children.” To her mind, “it would make a really good short film.”

One could say it was a fortuitous turn of events that brought Portes and Roxas together to turn Minsan May Isang Puta into a film. Portes was at a point where she was questioning the point of it all, while Roxas was determined to pick it up and try her hand on films. It was an opportunity to further seal the cultic, if not classic, status of the story.

The Dove Files by Mike Portes with an entire chapter on the movie, GANAP NA BABAE (Garden of Eve)[ Photo by Maria Jose – click picture for a larger image ]

Film is an interesting medium. The elements that go into writing—the voice, the character, the breathing, the lighting, the sound, the language—all those are present physically. All that is tacit in the text and the choices made by the writer that affect a reader come to a visual reality, approximating life, as it were. For Portes, the visual stimulation that a film affords might have just been the rebound that she needed at that point of her writing life. She saw it as “a blatant sign that my life was precious and that I should make full use of my gifts.”

The film adaptation may have ruffled some feminists (example Three Eves, Philippine Daily Inquirer article) but that only testifies to how effective the material is. Portes contends “that woman was never created to be subservient to the double standards of society. The lessons in the film are meant for spiritual introspection since society proliferates with dogma [sic] that serve perverted purposes.” Birds, as it were, fly low for differing reasons.

Minsan May Isang Puta is included in Portes’ recently published book The Dove Files, which collects her “popular and new writings in Filipino, Taglish and English” The book takes up both the traditional symbolism of the dove—patience, peace, love, emancipation, hope—and the Filipino euphemism for prostitutes. The book includes pieces “that endeavor to understand and honor the past and the present in order to face the future in full frontal. No sugar coating. No delusions.”

Ganap na Babae (Garden of Eve), a three-part feature movie about women by women directors, helmed by directors Rica Arevalo, Ellen Ramos, and Sarah Roxaswill be screened in the US this fall. In San Francisco Bay area, the film is part of FACINE/19 and will be shown on October 27, 12pm at the War Memorial Center, 6655 Mission Street, Daly City. The screening is open and free to the public.

HUBO Productions’ Ganap na Babae (Garden of Eve) has been named the first recipient of the 2012 Mount Hope Project Award which recognizes films that present social issues in the hope that it will be a catalyst for change. International Film Festival Manhattan co-founder and programmer Luis Pedron cites the “unique process that discovered new and upcoming women filmmakers” that culminated in the independent film Ganap na Babae (Garden of Eve). Gerry Balastra, founder of Mount Hope Project, affirms the belief that “film is one of the most powerful medium to bring change.”

Ganap na Babae(Garden of Eve) is the culminating project of a mentorship program initiated by HUBO Productions that aimed at nurturing young Filipino women directors. Ganap na Babae (Garden of Eve) was the opening film of the 6th Cinemalaya Filmfestival, 2010. Later, it became an official selection in the 2nd SoHo International Film Festival NYC, 2011 where it subsequently won the first Mient’s Pick for Excellence in Cinematography. The award earned the directors Arevalo, Ramos and Roxas, and cinematographers Gym Lumbera and Michael Manalastas Ani Dangal (Harvest of Honors) award in 2012 from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) of the Philippines.

Ganap na Babae(Garden of Eve) tells the story of Filipino women in contemporary Filipino society from the point of view of young Filipino women directors. A prostitute, two sisters, and a widow frame the narratives and insights that deals with womanhood in the Philippines. A prostitute (Mercedes Cabral) is interviewed for a documentary and in the course bared her soul in front of the camera. She looks backs on her struggles and her will to survive as a mother. Two sisters, Milagros (Sue Prado) and Elena (Jam Pérez), together till “camote” (sweet potato) in a land that became arid due to lack of rain. This situation pushed them to abject poverty prompting Elena to seek opportunities overseas by becoming a mail-order bride in Japan. Milagros was left behind to look after their family and farm the land. Eos (Boots Anson Roa) is a widow who falls in love with a younger man, Rodrigo (Rome Mallari). They try to make the relationship work amidst the pressure of their family and the society. Ganap na Babae (Garden of Eve) is directed by Rica Arevalo, Ellen Ramos, and Sarah Roxas.

In receiving this award, Ganap na Babae (Garden of Eve) will have a special screening on November 9, 5:10pm at the Quad Cinemas in New York. The screening is part of the 2nd International Film Festival Manhattan and will be a fundraising event. Proceeds will benefit The Happyness Photo Project, a platform that taps into the creative side of children living in a dumpsite in the Philippines. Janice Colina, Executive Director of Mount Hope Project, adds that with the presentation of this film, it will “hopefully stimulate great minds and open kind hearts.”

The International Film Festival Manhattan (IFFM) in New York aims to offer quality selection of world-class films that will be showcased in downtown Manhattan and offer filmmakers the opportunity to promote their work in a uniquely New York setting. In its second year, the festival runs from November 9 to 15 at the Quad Cinema in Manhattan. (http://www.facebook.com/IFFMNewyork)

About Mount Hope Project

Mount Hope Project is a non-profit organization that uses film and the arts to make a direct impact on lives of the underprivelged residents of Payatas in Quezon City, Philippines. MOUNT HOPE aims to create a positive change, starting with the lives of the scavenger-actors and venturing out to other communities in need, to promote a better world for all. (http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Mount-Hope-Project-Inc/ , http://www.mounthopeproject.org/)

About Happyness Photo Project

Happyness Photo Project is an off shoot of Mount Hope Project that aims to serve as a platform to tap the creative side of the children living in Payatas. It uses photography to promote and further its cause. Photographs depicting the hope and happiness among the children of Payatas are available for sale. Pieces are exhibited in all its events.

About HUBO Productions

HUBO Productions is an independent multi-media production company with film ventures as its core. To date, HUBO has released three-full length films, with two that are in post-production work. It has ventured its artistic reach in music, theatre, dance, and painting. HUBO encourages artistry through practical means, and dedicates its art to stimulate the mind however unconventional and unfamiliar.

HUBO Productions’ The Caregiver is slated to compete in this year’s International Film Festival Manhattan New York City (IFFMNYC) in November. It will be pit against movies from other countries in the narrative category.

The Caregiver is written and directed by HUBO’s CEO and Resident Director Will Fredo and tells the story of Carlito Mariposa (Joshua Deocareza) who is nursing Agustin Vergeire (Marcus Madrigal), a “sepaktakraw” (competitive hacky sack) player who was badly injured in one of his crucial games. Confined in a very limited and shrunken world, the two developed an unlikely attraction that had Carlito thread an unexpected journey of self-discovery, shedding layers of skin along the way like a deadly viper.

The festival runs from November 9 to 15 at the Quad Cinema in Manhattan. On its second year, IFFMNYC aims to offer quality selection of world-class films that will be showcased in downtown Manhattan and offer filmmakers the opportunity to promote their work in a uniquely New York setting. The programming, with a special focus on social relevance, encompasses different genres contributing to the diversity within the festival.

HUBO Productions is an independent multi-media production company with film ventures as its core. To date, HUBO has released three-full length films, with two that are in post-production work. It has ventured its artistic reach in music, theatre, dance, and painting. HUBO encourages artistry through practical means, and dedicates its art to stimulate the mind however unconventional and unfamiliar.